Just a few hundred metres from the roaring traffic of the M40, scientists have uncovered a very different kind of road.
Around 166 million years ago Britain’s ‘dinosaur highway’ was teaming with lumbering giants and fierce predators making their way across the country.
Researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham have uncovered a huge expanse of quarry floor filled with hundreds of different dinosaur footprints.
Scientists found five of the UK’s most extensive dinosaur trackways, with the longest measuring 150m in length.
Four of these belong to long-necked herbivores – most likely Cetiosaurus, an 18-metre-long cousin of the Diplodocus.
The fifth track was made by a passing Megalosaurus, a ferocious nine-metre-long predator which stalked the boggy lagoons of Britain during the Middle Jurassic period.
These uniquely well-preserved tracks reveal some stunning insights into the lives of the long-extinct giants, even recording the moment two dinosaurs crossed paths.
And researchers say it is ‘very likely’ that there are still more tracks to be found.
Scientists have uncovered Britain’s ‘dinosaur highway’ where giant herbivores and fierce predators would have passed 166 million years ago
In the Dewars Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire, archaeologists have found more than 200 dinosaur footprints in five distinct sets of tracks
The tracks were found in the Jurassic limestone of the Dewars Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire.
Originally buried under clay, these new tracks were first spotted by quarry worker Gary Johnson when he felt ‘unusual bumps’ while stripping back the clay to reach the quarry floor.
Realising the significance of the find, experts were contacted and a full-scale excavation of the site began.
During June last year, more than 100 scientists and volunteers carefully uncovered over 200 fossilised footprints.
In addition to making casts of the prints for further study, the researchers also took more than 20,000 photographs to create a complete 3D model of the site.
This discovery connects to earlier finds made in the area in 1997 when a previous limestone quarry uncovered more than 40 tracks from sauropods and theropods, a group of bipedal dinosaurs including the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
However, the site was buried before the widespread use of digital cameras and drones so no 3D models of the tracks could be made.
That means this latest discovery is an especially valuable insight into a vibrant prehistoric ecosystem.
Four of the trackways belong to a long-necked sauropod, most likely the 18-metre-long Cetiosaurus (right). The last remaining set belonged to a Megalosaurus (left), a ferocious predator which grew up to nine metres in length
The trackways extend up to 150 metres along the quarry bed and were discovered when a worker noticed ‘unusual bumps’ in the limestone
Around 166 million years ago, before this layer of limestone formed, this part of Oxfordshire was a warm, shallow lagoon above a thick bed of mud.
Dr Duncan Murdock, a palaeontologist from Oxford University, told MailOnline: ‘As the feet of the giant animals, some up to 10 tonnes, went into the mud they left behind both an impression of the foot and a rim of displaced mud around the print.
‘The surface was then flooded and buried with a more clay-rich mud, preserving the footprints. Over time, and further burial, these sediments turned into rock.’
That thick mud has preserved such incredible levels of detail that scientists can see how the mud was deformed as the dinosaurs’ feet squelched in and out.
‘Unlike fossil bones, finds like these tell us about the behaviour of extinct animals,’ says Dr Murdock.
‘The size, shape and position of the footprints can tell us how these dinosaurs moved, their size and speed.’
Each three-toed Megalosaurus track is around 65cm in length and 2.7m apart.
Based on those measurements, scientists estimate that this ancient predator would have been ambling along at around three miles per hour (five kmph) – roughly the same as a human’s walking speed.
By looking at the size and distribution of the footprints, scientists are able to work out how the dinosaurs moved and how fast they were going at the time
The Megalosaurus (left) produced footprints that are 65cm in length and was likely moving at around three miles per hour (five kmph). The sauropod produced huge 90cm footprints (right) and is believed to have been moving at a similar speed to human walking pace
At one point in the track, palaeontologists even discovered a point where a Megalosaurus and sauropod crossed paths.
Based on the disturbances in the mud, the scientists believe that the sauropod passed through first, followed by the Megalosaurus sometime later.
Dr Murdock says: ‘Where trackways cross we get a glimpse of the potential interactions between different species like the carnivorous Megalosaurus and the giant herbivorous sauropods.’
And as exciting as these discoveries already are, experts say there could still be more to find.
Professor Kirsty Edgar, a micropalaeontologist from the University of Birmingham, told MailOnline that it is ‘very very likely’ that more tracks will be found.
She says: ‘When the animal walks over a surface and leaves an impression in soft sediment so [tracks are] most commonly found around river, lake lagoon margins or coastal environments more generally.’
Additionally, the Dewars Farm quarry is still actively extracting layers of rock above the trackway surface which means there may be more discoveries to come as the Jurassic limestone is exposed.
Smiths Bletchington, the quarry’s operators, are working with Natural England to explore options to preserve the site for the future.